Emmet O'Neal Library staff composed and adopted a service pledge to guide interactions with each other and all patrons:
We are reliable, kind, and ready to tackle any question without preconception.
We strive to provide a safe place for all and refuse to marginalize the ideas and questions that have been raised in our community and across the world in recent weeks.
From the cofounder of VerySmartBrothas.com, and one of the
most read writers on race and culture at work today, a provocative
and humorous memoir-in-essays that explores the absurdities and anxieties
of being Black in America
A More Perfect Reunion: Race, Integration, and the Future of America by Calvin Baker (The is title will be released on June 30, 2020)
At once a profound, masterful reading of US history from the
colonial era forward and a trenchant critique of the obstacles in our current
political and cultural moment, A More Perfect Reunion is also a call
to action. As Baker reminds us, we live in a revolutionary democracy. We are
one of the best-positioned generations in history to finish that revolution.
A national bestseller when it first appeared in 1963, The
Fire Next Time galvanized the nation, gave passionate voice to the
emerging civil rights movement—and still lights the way to understanding race
in America today.
A Knock at Midnight: A Story of Hope, Justice, and Freedom by Brittany Barnett (This title will be released on September 8, 2020)
An urgent call to free those buried alive by America’s legal
system, and an inspiring true story about unwavering belief in humanity—from a
gifted young lawyer and important new voice in the movement to transform the
system.
From a leading voice on racial justice, an eye-opening
account of growing up Black, Christian, and female that exposes how white
America’s love affair with “diversity” so often falls short of its ideals.
The New York Times best-selling book exploring the
counterproductive reactions white people have when their assumptions about race
are challenged, and how these reactions maintain racial inequality.
Award-winning journalist Reni Eddo-Lodge was frustrated with
the way that discussions of race and racism are so often led by those blind to
it, by those willfully ignorant of its legacy. Her response, Why I'm No
Longer Talking to White People About Race, has transformed the conversation
both in Britain and around the world. Examining everything from eradicated
black history to the political purpose of white dominance, from whitewashed
feminism to the inextricable link between class and race, Eddo-Lodge offers a
timely and essential new framework for how to see, acknowledge, and counter
racism.
Brit(ish) by Afua Hirsch (on order, not yet in the library system)
Brit(ish) is about a search for identity. It is about
the everyday racism that plagues British society. It is about our awkward,
troubled relationship with our history. It is about why liberal attempts to be
"color-blind" have caused more problems than they have solved. It is
about why we continue to avoid talking about race.
In How to Be an Antiracist, Kendi takes listeners
through a widening circle of antiracist ideas - from the most basic concepts to
visionary possibilities - that will help listeners see all forms of racism
clearly, understand their poisonous consequences, and work to oppose them in
our systems and in ourselves. Kendi weaves an electrifying combination of
ethics, history, law, and science with his own personal story of awakening to
antiracism. This is an essential work for anyone who wants to go beyond the
awareness of racism to the next step: contributing to the formation of a just
and equitable society.
Presenting the essential writings of black lesbian poet and
feminist writer Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider celebrates an influential
voice in 20th-century literature. In this charged collection of 15 essays and
speeches, Lorde takes on sexism, racism, ageism, homophobia, and class and
propounds social difference as a vehicle for action and change. Her prose is
incisive, unflinching, and lyrical, reflecting struggle but ultimately offering
messages of hope.
Moore is an award-winning writer, a leading Black Lives
Matter activist, and an advocate for justice and liberation. In No Ashes
in the Fire, he shares the journey taken by a scared, bullied teenager who not
only survived, but found his calling. Moore's transcendence over the myriad
forces of repression that faced him is a testament to the grace and care of the
people who loved him, and to his hometown, Camden, NJ, scarred and ignored but
brimming with life. Moore reminds us that liberation is possible if we commit
ourselves to fighting for it, and if we dream and create futures where those
who survive on society's edges can thrive.
Five Days: The Fiery Reckoning of an American City by Wes Moore (This title will be released June 23, 2020)
From the New York Times best-selling author
of The Other Wes Moore, a kaleidoscopic account of five days in the life
of a city on the edge, told through eight characters on the front lines of the
uprising that overtook Baltimore in the aftermath of the April 2015 death of
Freddie Gray and riveted the world.
The Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime, and the Making of the Modern Urban America by Khalil Gibran Muhammad
Lynch mobs, chain gangs, and popular views of black Southern
criminals that defined the Jim Crow South are well known. We know less about
the role of the urban North in shaping views of race and crime in American
society. The idea of black criminality was crucial to the making of modern
urban America, as were African Americans' own ideas about race and crime. Chronicling
the emergence of deeply embedded notions of black people as a dangerous race of
criminals by explicit contrast to working-class whites and European immigrants,
this fascinating book reveals the influence such ideas have had on urban
development and social policies.
Some Americans cling desperately to the myth that we are
living in a post-racial society, that the election of the first Black president
spelled the doom of racism. In fact, racist thought is alive and well in
America - more sophisticated and more insidious than ever. And as award-winning
historian Ibram X. Kendi argues in Stamped from the Beginning, if we have
any hope of grappling with this stark reality, we must first understand how
racist ideas were developed, disseminated, and enshrined in American society.
Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor by Layla F. Saad
This eye-opening book challenges you to do the essential
work of unpacking your biases, and helps white people take action and dismantle
the privilege within themselves so that you can stop (often unconsciously)
inflicting damage on people of color, and in turn, help other white people do
better, too.
As timely as it is necessary, the book will be a valuable
resource for understanding the roots of American systemic racism, white
privilege, the uses and abuses of the Confederate flag and its ideals, the
black church as a foundation for civil rights activity and state violence
against such activity, and critical whiteness studies.
Beautifully woven from personal narrative, reimagined
history, and fresh, emotionally charged reportage, Between the World and
Me clearly illuminates the past, bracingly confronts our present, and
offers a transcendent vision for a way forward.
In his 2016 New York Times op-ed piece "Death
in Black and White," Michael Eric Dyson moved a nation. Now he continues
to speak out in Tears We Cannot Stop―a provocative and deeply personal
call for change. Dyson argues that if we are to make real racial progress we
must face difficult truths, including being honest about how black grievance
has been ignored, dismissed, or discounted.
In So You Want to Talk About Race, Ijeoma Oluo guides
readers of all races through subjects ranging from intersectionality and affirmative
action to "model minorities" in an attempt to make the seemingly
impossible possible: honest conversations about race and racism, and how they
infect almost every aspect of American life.
Forsyth County, Georgia, at the turn of the twentieth century,
was home to a large African American community that included ministers and
teachers, farmers and field hands, tradesmen, servants, and children. But then
in September of 1912, three young black laborers were accused of raping and
murdering a white girl. One man was dragged from a jail cell and lynched on the
town square, two teenagers were hung after a one-day trial, and soon bands of
white “night riders” launched a coordinated campaign of arson and terror,
driving all 1,098 black citizens out of the county. The charred ruins of homes
and churches disappeared into the weeds, until the people and places of black
Forsyth were forgotten.
They Can’t Kill Us All: Ferguson, Baltimore, and a New Era in America’s Racial Justice Movement by Wesley Lowery
A deeply reported book that brings alive the quest for
justice in the deaths of Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, and Freddie Gray, offering
both unparalleled insight into the reality of police violence in America and an
intimate, moving portrait of those working to end it.
A surprise New York Times bestseller, these
groundbreaking essays and poems about race—collected by National Book Award
winner Jesmyn Ward and written by the most important voices of her
generation—are “thoughtful, searing, and at times, hopeful. The Fire This
Time is vivid proof that words are important, because of their power to
both cleanse and to clarify” (USA TODAY).
Nobody: Casualties of America’s War on the Vulnerable, from Ferguson to Flint and Beyond by Marc Lamont Hill
In this “thought-provoking and important” (Library Journal)
analysis of state-sanctioned violence, Marc Lamont Hill carefully considers a
string of high-profile deaths in America—Sandra Bland, Freddie Gray, Michael
Brown, Eric Garner, Trayvon Martin, and others—and incidents of gross
negligence by government, such as the water crisis in Flint, Michigan. He digs
underneath these events to uncover patterns and policies of authority that
allow some citizens become disempowered, disenfranchised, poor, uneducated,
exploited, vulnerable, and disposable.
Interwoven with Sorin’s own family history and enhanced by
dozens of little known images, Driving While Black charts how the
automobile fundamentally reshaped African American life, and opens up an
entirely new view onto one of the most important issues of our time.
Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice that Shapes What We See, Think, and Do by Jennifer Eberhardt
From one of the world’s leading experts on unconscious
racial bias come stories, science, and strategies to address one of the central
controversies of our time
A More Beautiful and Terrible History: The Uses and Misuses of Civil Rights History by Jeanne Theoharis
By showing us the complex reality of the movement, the power
of its organizing, and the beauty and scope of the vision, Theoharis proves
that there was nothing natural or inevitable about the progress that
occurred. A More Beautiful and Terrible History will change our
historical frame, revealing the richness of our civil rights legacy, the
uncomfortable mirror it holds to the nation, and the crucial work that remains
to be done.
The Black and the Blue: A Cop Reveals the Crimes, Racism, and Injustice in America’s Law Enforcement by Matthew Horace
Through gut-wrenching reportage, on-the-ground research, and
personal accounts from interviews with police and government officials around
the country, Horace presents an insider's examination of archaic police
tactics. He dissects some of the nation's most highly publicized police
shootings and communities to explain how these systems and tactics have hurt
the people they serve, revealing the mistakes that have stoked racist policing,
sky-high incarceration rates, and an epidemic of violence.
Policing the Black Man: Arrest, Prosecution, and Imprisonment edited and with an introduction by Angela Davis, featuring Bryan Stevenson,, Marc Mauer, Bruce Western, Jeremy Travis, et al.
A comprehensive, readable analysis of the key issues of the
Black Lives Matter movement, this thought-provoking and compelling anthology
features essays by some of the nation’s most influential and respected criminal
justice experts and legal scholars.
A potent and electrifying critique of today's feminist
movement announcing a fresh new voice in black feminism.
Former public defender James Forman, Jr. is a leading critic
of mass incarceration and its disproportionate impact on people of color. In Locking
Up Our Own, he seeks to understand the war on crime that began in the 1970s and
why it was supported by many African American leaders in the nation’s urban
centers.
In this epic, beautifully written masterwork, Pulitzer
Prize–winning author Isabel Wilkerson chronicles one of the great untold
stories of American history: the decades-long migration of black citizens who
fled the South for northern and western cities, in search of a better life.
We Were Eight Years in Power features Coates’s iconic
essays first published in The Atlantic, including “Fear of a Black
President,” “The Case for Reparations,” and “The Black Family in the Age of
Mass Incarceration,” along with eight fresh essays that revisit each year of
the Obama administration through Coates’s own experiences, observations, and
intellectual development, capped by a bracingly original assessment of the
election that fully illuminated the tragedy of the Obama era. We Were
Eight Years in Power is a vital account of modern America, from one of the
definitive voices of this historic moment.
Carefully historical flashpoints when social progress for
African Americans was countered by deliberate and cleverly crafted opposition,
Anderson pulls back the veil that has long covered actions made in the name of
protecting democracy, fiscal responsibility, or protection against fraud,
rendering visible the long lineage of white rage.
Here is a book as joyous and painful, as mysterious and
memorable, as childhood itself. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings captures
the longing of lonely children, the brute insult of bigotry, and the wonder of
words that can make the world right. Maya Angelou’s debut memoir is a modern
American classic beloved worldwide.
An important and original work, Fearing the Black Body argues
convincingly that fat phobia isn't about health at all, but rather a means of
using the body to validate race, class, and gender prejudice.
With a foreword by Stevenson, The Sun Does Shine is
an extraordinary testament to the power of hope sustained through the darkest
times. Destined to be a classic memoir of wrongful imprisonment and freedom
won, Hinton’s memoir tells his dramatic thirty-year journey and shows how you
can take away a man’s freedom, but you can’t take away his imagination, humor,
or joy.
Championing human rights in the face of violent racism,
Patrisse is a survivor. She transformed her personal pain into political power,
giving voice to a people suffering inequality and a movement fueled by her
strength and love to tell the country―and the world―that Black Lives Matter. When
They Call You a Terrorist is Patrisse Khan-Cullors and asha bandele’s
reflection on humanity. It is an empowering account of survival, strength and
resilience and a call to action to change the culture that declares innocent
Black life expendable.
Heavy is a “gorgeous, gutting…generous” (The New York
Times) memoir that combines personal stories with piercing intellect to reflect
both on the strife of American society and on Laymon’s experiences with abuse.
By attempting to name secrets and lies he and his mother spent a lifetime
avoiding, he asks us to confront the terrifying possibility that few in this
nation actually know how to responsibly love, and even fewer want to live under
the weight of actually becoming free.
Noah’s stories weave together to form a moving and searingly
funny portrait of a boy making his way through a damaged world in a dangerous
time, armed only with a keen sense of humor and a mother’s unconventional,
unconditional love.
In her memoir, a work of deep reflection and mesmerizing
storytelling, Michelle Obama invites readers into her world, chronicling the
experiences that have shaped her—from her childhood on the South Side of
Chicago to her years as an executive balancing the demands of motherhood and
work, to her time spent at the world’s most famous address. With unerring
honesty and lively wit, she describes her triumphs and her disappointments,
both public and private, telling her full story as she has lived it—in her own
words and on her own terms.
A powerful true story about the potential for mercy to
redeem us, and a clarion call to fix our broken system of justice—from one of
the most brilliant and influential lawyers of our time.
In the searing pages of this classic autobiography,
originally published in 1964, Malcolm X, the Muslim leader, firebrand, and
anti-integrationist, tells the extraordinary story of his life and the growth
of the Black Muslim movement. His fascinating perspective on the lies and
limitations of the American Dream, and the inherent racism in a society that
denies its nonwhite citizens the opportunity to dream, gives extraordinary
insight into the most urgent issues of our own time.
Equal parts unblinking memoir, history, and prescription for
finally confronting America's most painful legacy, In the Shadow of
Statues contributes strongly to the national conversation about race at a
time when racism is resurgent with seemingly tacit approval from the highest
levels of government and when too many Americans have a misplaced nostalgia for
a time and place that never existed.
Click any title to check for availability and/or place a hold. Curbside pickup is available Mon-Sat 10am-5:30pm.
Click any title to check for availability and/or place a hold. Curbside pickup is available Mon-Sat 10am-5:30pm.
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